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The rapid decline of biodiversity is directly threatening the maintenance of important ecosystem processes. Yet, biodiversity loss is not homogeneous, with species presenting specific traits being more prone to extinction. Ultimately this can lead to potential disruption of key ecosystem functions. Ants are ubiquitous and abundant in all terrestrial ecosystems. They provide a plethora of ecosystem functions and thus are well suited for studies assessing ecological processes. Within ant communities, body size of different species can vary by several orders of magnitude reflecting different ecologies. To this point, however, our understanding of the efficiency of ecological processes by different classes in function of their body size remains largely unexplored under field conditions. This is in part due to a lack of adequate methodology for an easy and accurate assessment of their respective contributions. Here, we describe a novel approach that separates ants into three size classes based on two parameters: height of the access point and size of the entrance; and evaluated the success of this method by assessing morphometric parameters of the size classes post-filtering and quantifying the scavenging efficiency as a key ecological process. This method successfully segregated individuals based on their body size, with the large-size treatment allowing access to ants 3 times larger than ants on the medium-size treatment and 5 times larger than those on the small-size treatment. The large-size treatment was the most efficient, removing 7 times more bait per hour than the medium-size treatment and 40 times more than the small-size treatment. This approach provides a new, adjustable method for differential exclusion in the field, highlighting the role that different size classes play within a community. This opens new opportunities to study the relative role of specific functional traits, and the importance of ecological interactions in shaping ecosystem functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use changes and accelerating deforestation rates impact biodiversity on a global scale. While it is well established that the loss of primary forests is devastating, considerably less is understood about the conservation value of sacred forests (e.g. Feng shui woods in China) as local biodiversity reservoirs in human influenced landscapes. When these forests were assessed, the focus was generally on floral diversity, while faunal aspects were neglected. Here we address this knowledge gap by evaluating several dimensions of faunal biodiversity in Hong Kong Feng shui woods. We compare taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional elements of the leaf litter dwelling ant fauna collected over five years among Feng shui woods and two woody habitats corresponding to two distinct successional stages. Ant assemblages in Feng shui woods presented higher species richness that were more resilient to invasions by tramp species, and encompassed specialist species with a distinct set of traits. Phylogenetic diversity was similar in Feng shui and successional woods, while functional diversity was clustered in early successional habitats. The scarcity of tramp species and presence of specialists in Feng shui woods despite their close proximity to human settlements highlights their conservation value for native species in highly degraded landscapes. Our results provide much needed insight on the faunal biodiversity of Feng shui woods. We highlight the conservation value and urgent need for a better protection of these widely overlooked sacred forests in highly disturbed landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]